The storm “Ciarán” has reached Italy and caused severe devastation in Tuscany: at least five people were killed. Communities in the area surrounding Florence were particularly flooded.
Accompanied by severe storms and heavy rain, the storm “Ciarán” hit the central Italian region of Tuscany overnight. At least five people were killed. Two bodies were found during searches in the morning, said the region’s president, Eugenio Giani.
Giani had previously explained that an 85-year-old man was found drowned in his apartment in the municipality of Montemurlo, about an hour northwest of Florence. An 84-year-old woman also suffered an attack of weakness. According to Italian media, another person died in the coastal town of Rosignano.
“We’ve never recorded so much rain before”
Civil defense had already warned people in Tuscany on Thursday evening and called on them not to leave their homes. Within a few hours, the storm turned the streets in several villages into torrents of water and mud. Regional President Giani wrote on the online service X, formerly Twitter: “What happened in Tuscany tonight has a name: climate change. We have never recorded so much rain in so few minutes.”
Several people were injured and there are reports of missing people. However, the strong wind is making it difficult for the emergency services to carry out the clean-up and search work. Giani declared a state of emergency for the region in the morning. The fire department responded to more than 1,000 missions. Civil defense was also on duty throughout the night. There were significant problems with rail traffic. In some areas the torrents of water were so powerful that hospitals were also flooded.
40,000 households without electricity
The storms particularly affected the province of Prato in northern Tuscany. According to a statement, the small town of Montemurlo with around 20,000 inhabitants registered 200 liters of rain per square meter within a few hours. These measurements are “unprecedented,” it said. The fire department reported that it carried out dozens of operations around Florence, Pistoia, Pisa and the city of Prato to rescue motorists stuck in their vehicles in flooded tunnels or on the road because of fallen trees.
Not far from the city of Florence, the Bisenzio River overflowed its banks and flooded several communities. Videos on social media showed how many cars were swept away by the water on a street in the town of Campi Bisenzio. Parts of the A11 motorway were closed. The situation in Florence is “critical,” said Mayor Dario Nardelle on X night. According to the authorities, more than 40,000 households in the area are without electricity. The Arno is expected to reach its flood peak later today.
Rain is easing again
The Veneto region in the northeast of the Mediterranean country was also affected by the severe storms. One person went missing in the province of Belluno, north of Venice. It is a firefighter who was not on duty but had stacked sandbags by a river as he prepared for the storm.
The rain stopped or eased in the morning and water began to recede locally. However, the orange alert level initially remained in force in Tuscany. “Ciarán” swept across parts of Western Europe on Thursday with peak gusts of around 200 kilometers per hour and heavy rain. At least seven people were killed in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, and more than a million people were temporarily without electricity.